4475. EBB to Anna Brownell Jameson
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 264–268.
Villa Alberti– Siena.
August 26 [1859] [1]
Dearest friend, what have you thought of me?——
I was no more likely to write to you about the ‘peace’ than about any stroke of personal calamity. The peace fell like a bomb on us all—and for my part, you may still find somewhere on the ground,—splinters of my heart .. if you look hard. But by the time your letter reached me we had recovered the blow spiritually, had understood that it was necessary, & that the emperor Napoleon, though forced to abandon one arena, was prepared to carry on the struggle for Italy on another–
Therefore I should have answered your letter at once if I had not been siezed with illness– Indeed my dear dear friend, you will hear from me no excuses. I have not been unkind, simply incapable.
I believe it was the violent mental agitation—the reaction from a state of exultation & joy in which I had been walking among the stars so many months .. and the grief[,] anxiety, the struggle, the talking .. all coming on me at a moment when the ferocious heat had made the body peculiarly susceptible—: but one afternoon I went down to the Trollopes, had sight of the famous Ducal orders about bombarding Florence, [2] & came home to be ill– Violent palpitations & cough—in fact, the worst attack on the chest I ever had in Italy– For two days & two nights it was more like angina pectoris, as I have heard it described—but this, went off, & the complaint ran on to its ancient pattern, thank God, & kept me only very ill, with violent cough all night long, .. my poor Robert who nursed me like an angel, prevented from sleeping for full three weeks. When there was a possibility I was lifted into a carriage & brought here—stayed two days at the inn in Siena, & then removed to this pleasant airy villa– Very ill I was after coming, & great courage it required to come—but change of air was absolutely a condition of living—and the event justified the risk– For now I am quite myself, have done crying ‘wolf,’ & end this lamentable history, by desiring you to absolve me for my silence. We have been here nearly a month– My strength which was so exhausted that I could scarcely stand unsupported, is coming back satisfactorily, & the cough has ceased to vex me at all– Still I am not equal to driving out– I hope to take my first drive in a very few days though—& the very asses are ministering to me .. in milk!. All the English physicians had found it convenient (the beloved grand duke being absent) to leave Florence, and Zan[n]etti was attending the Piedmontese hospitals—so that I had to attend me none of the old oracles .. only a Prussian physician (Dr Grizanowsky) a very intelligent man, of whom we knew a little personally—& who had a strong political sympathy with me. (He & I used to sit together on Isa Blagden’s terrace & relieve ourselves by abusing each other’s country,—& whether he expressed most moral indignation against England or I against Prussia remained doubtful.) Afterwards he came to cure me, & was as generous in his profession as became his politics—people are, usually, very kind to us, I must say. Think of that man following us to Siena uninvited, & attending me at the hotel two days—then refusing recompense.
Well—now let me speak of our Italy & the peace!– “Immoral” you say? Yes, immoral. But not immoral on the part of Napoleon who had his hand forced—only immoral on the part of those who by infamies of speech & intrigue (in England & Germany), against which I for one had been protesting for months, brought about the complicated results which forced his hand. Never was a greater or more disinterested deed intended & almost completed, than this French intervention for Italian independence; & never was a baser & more hideous sight than the league against it of the nations– Let me not speak——
For the rest—if it were not for Venetia (Zurich keeps its secrets so far) [3] the peace would have proved a benefit rather than otherwise. We have had time to feel our own strength, to stand on our own feet. The vain talk about Napoleon’s intervening militarily on behalf of the Grand Duke, has simply been the consequence of statements without foundation in the English & German papers .. & also in some French ultramontane papers. Napoleon with his own lips, after the peace, assured our delegates that no force should be used– And he has repeated this on every possible occasion. [4] — At Villafranca when the Emperor of Austria insisted on the return of the Dukes, he acceded, on condition they were recalled– He “did not come to Italy to dispossess the sovereigns,” [5] as he had previously observed, but to give the power of election to the people– Before we left Rome this spring, he had said to the French ambassador, “If the Tuscans like to recall their grand duke, qu’est ce que cela me fait?”– [6] He simply said the same at Villafranca–
Count de Reiset was sent to Florence, Modena & Parma, to “constater”, [7] not to “impose”—& the whole policy of Napoleon has been to draw out a calm & full expression of the popular mind– [8] Nobly have the people of Italy responded. Surely there is not in history a grander attitude than this assumed by a nation half born, half constituted, scarcely named yet, but already capable of self restraint & dignity, and magnanimous faith– We are full of hope, & should be radiant with joy … except for Venitia–
Dearest friend, the war did more than “give a province to Piedmont”– [9] The first French charge freed Italy potentially from north to south– At this moment Austria cannot stir anywhere– Here, “we live, breathe, & have our national being” [10] –-- Certainly, if Napoleon did what the Times has declared he would do—intervene with armed force against the people—prevent the elections … or tamper with the elections by means of .... such means as he was “familiar” with … if he did these things,—I should cry aloud, “Immoral, vile, a traitor!”– But the facts deny all these imputations– He has walked steadily on, along one path, .. & the development of Italy as a nation is at the end of it–
Of course the first emotion on the subject of the peace was rage as well as grief– For one day in Florence, all his portraits & busts disappeared from the shop-windows—& I myself, to Penini’s extreme disgust (who insisted on it that his dear Napoleon could’nt do anything wrong, & that the fault was in the telegraph!) would’nt let him wear his Napoleon medal. Afterwards .. as Ferdinando said, .. “siamo stati un po’ troppo furiosi davvero, Signora” [11] .. that came to be the general conviction– Out came the portraits again in the sun—and the emperor’s bust, side by side with Victor Emanuel’s, adorns the room of our “General Assembly.” There are individuals, of course, who think that through whatever amount of difficulty & complication, he should have preserved his first programme– But these are not the wiser thinkers. He had to judge for France as well as for Italy– As Mr Trollope said to me in almost the first fever, “It is upon the cards that he has acted in the wisest & most conscientious manner possible for all,—or it is on the cards &c”–
The difficulty now is at Naples–. [12]
There will be a Congress of course. A Congress was in the first programme. After the war, a congress.
But, dearest Moña Nina, if you want to get calumniated, hated, lied upon, & spate upon (in a spiritual sense) try and do a good deed, from disinterested motives, in this world. That’s my lesson.
I have been told upon rather good authority that Cavour’s retirement is simply a feint & that he will recover his position presently. [13]
What weighs on my heart is Venetia. Can they do anything at Zurich to modify that heavy fact?–
You see I am not dead yet, dear dearest friend– And, while alive at all, I cant help being in earnest on these questions– I am a Ba, you know– Forgive me when I get too much “riled” by your England–
You will know by this time that the “proposition” you approved of, was French.
What made the very help of Prussia unacceptable to Austria, was the circumstance of Prussia’s using that opportunity of Austria’s need, to wriggle herself to the military headship of the Confederation. Austria would rather have lost Lombardy (& more) than have accepted such a disadvantage. Hence the coldness!——the cause of which is scarcely avowable. Selfish & pitiful nations!–
Dear Isa Blagden writes me all the political news of Florence– She is well,—& will come to pay us a visit before long– We remain here till September ends & then return to Casa Guidi.
I had a letter from Bologna from Jessie—which threw me into a terror lest the Mazzinians should come to Italy just in time to ruin us– The letter (not unkind to me) was as contrary to facts & reason as possible– I was too ill to write at the time, & Robert would not let me answer it afterwards—since when I hear of her <***> [14]
Publication: LEBB, II, 324–329.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by EBB’s references to Italian events.
4. We have been unable to confirm Napoleon III’s meeting with the Tuscan “delegates” before he left Italy in July 1859. However, later that month he received two Tuscan envoys at Paris and promised them that “France would not assist the restoration of the Duke or his son with French arms” (The Morning Post, 28 July 1859, p. 5). More recently, the French Emperor told a Tuscan representative: “You can assure the public that I will never intervene in favor of restoration, and I will never allow Austria to intervene” (The Morning Post, 31 August 1859, p. 6).
7. “Ascertain.”
8. Gustave Armand Henri, Comte de Reiset (1821–1905), French diplomat, had perhaps been sent to Tuscany to gauge “the popular mind,” but, according to The Morning Post’s correspondent, Reiset “arrived in Florence with the design of persuading the Tuscan people to replace on the throne the fallen dynasty of Lorraine” (31 August 1859, p. 6). Napoleon III, on the other hand, told a Tuscan representative that “Reizet [sic] had misunderstood his mission and made himself very unpopular in Italy” (p. 6).
9. i.e., Lombardy (see letter 4445, note 3).
10. Cf. Acts 17:28.
11. “We have been a bit too furious indeed, Signora.”
12. The Kingdom of Naples, formally known at this time as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, was governed by an autocratic Bourbon king, Francis II, whose affinities lay with the papacy and Austria rather than the rest of Italy.
13. Cavour resigned as prime minister of Piedmont on the night of 11 July 1859 in protest over the terms of the armistice signed that day at Villafranca. He resumed office the following January at the request of King Victor Emmanuel (see Denis Mack Smith, Cavour, New York, 1985, pp. 174, 183, and 184).
14. Perhaps, the next word was “arrest” (see letter 4469, note 13).
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